Kind of a Noob and need some help

[PbSandman7]

I am fairly new to this end of the game.. rooting phones but really like the control aspect of it all. I am pretty techy to a certain extent in other fields.. computers, motors.. list goes on so I can learn quickly. I have done a lot of reading on here and still have some questions.
Hopefully you guys can help and either point me towards some threads or simply answer my questions. thanks in advance for any help.

I received the 893 update a couple weeks ago and decided to root my phone last night per some instructions in a thread below... "the root or re root after 893 update". Very simple btw.

My first question is... I want to forever root and I'm not sure if that included it? I don't think it did though.
- Can I forever root without losing anything I already have, is there a link somewhere to just forever root? Or do I have to do it all over again?

I also downloaded root explorer and titanium backup pro, as a buddy of mine said they are good apps and can be useful too.

If I have to do a factory reset to start over, will I lose anything on the phone?.. contacts.. apps. settings.. if so, what is needed to do in order to keep everything and root/4ever root?

I am considering tweaking with the rom upgrades as well. What are the pros of doing so, I assume it will just make the phone a hell of a lot faster while multi tasking? Any disadvantages? Recommendations on which rom to download.

Any help and patience here is much appreciated. Thanks again

 

[donzz]

What file did you root with?

 

[PbSandman7]

It was the 1 click exploit that is a couple threads down. Title of the thread is [how to root] or reroot after the 5.5.893 update.

It appeared to be exactly what I needed considering that I wanted to root after the update. It states that there are a lot of people with this same question so he made a thread with that title to make things easier for people.

 

[unbesorgt]

The Forever Root hack is explained here. Be sure to watch the video to get the permissions right.

Make sure you don't delete system apps. If you want to de-bloat, buy Titanium Backup Pro and freeze them. That way you can defrost them again if needed for an OTA update (the updates often check to see if bloatware is still present, and if not it will fail). See here for thoughts on which bloatware is safe to freeze (ignore the root instructions since you've already achieved root).

 

[PbSandman7]

I realized that it is better to freeze after I deleted a couple apps. The only ones that were deleted were the kindle app, that stupid golf game and blockbuster app. I think that is all. Will it create any issues if I don't have those?

I haven't gone through the entire process to freeze stuff quite yet. I wanted to do some more research on what is safe to freeze.
Thanks for the links too btw.

 

[unbesorgt]

The golf game can actually be uninstalled the normal way. Not sure about issues with deleting Kindle and Blockbuster, although that link I sent earlier mentions that freezing the Blockbuster app can cause errors.

 

[PbSandman7]

To your knowledge will i get errors since i deleted the blockbuster app? Any idea what the app actually does..
Should i redownload it in the market?
Damn bloats..

 

[unbesorgt]

To your knowledge will i get errors since i deleted the blockbuster app? Any idea what the app actually does..
Should i redownload it in the market?
Damn bloats..

No clue ... some people claim to have installed the official 5.5.893 OTA with several apps still frozen, so you could be fine. I don't have any information other than what was mentioned in that link -- I read that before I started freezing so I didn't even freeze Blockbuster, it's still on my phone ... but luckily it never runs anyway. It's supposed to be a portal for renting movie streams from Blockbuster Video, I think ... why anyone would choose that over Netflix or the Android Market is beyond me, but I guess that's why they have to force it onto peoples phones.

 

[Bear in NM]

I am one of the ones who OTA'd the latest with my apps still fozen with TB, including the ones mentioned above. No issues. And, I still get updates to several of my frozen aps but they do not run nor show in my ap drawer. So I am not sure is TB is just not robust enough to completely eliminate the frozen aps with the network updater (market) or what, but I would not lose any sleep over freezing aps.

Once all of this OTA stuff is sorted out, I will get serious with renaming them in lieu of freezing, but one thing I will not do is delete them. There is zero reason to do so. As most of these aps reside in /system, and as you really do not need to worry about space there, just rename by applying a .bak on the end of each ap you want to "disappear", and be done with it. Then when an OTA is rolling out, remove the .bak from all of the aps.

As to forever root, what this program does is add a couple of lines to file to keep SU. In /system/bin you will see a file named mount_ext3.sh. Open this file and you should see at the end of the file:

chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
chmod 4755 /system/xbin/su
chmod 4755 /system/app/Superuser.apk

As this .sh file resides in /system, you just need to make sure anything you do to the phone that changes /system either does not nuke this file, or at least contains this file and the chmod commands. any roms you add should contain this exploit. I have not done a factory reset, but if doing so wipes your /system, it might affect this file. Just get used to checking this file, as this is your exploit to maintain root through an upgrade. Even if all you want to do is run the forever root routine to make the changes, I would suggest getting comfortable with your favorite root exploring program so that you can check this file, and correct manually if necessary.

And so far the OTA's that have been pushed do not appear to mod this file as the OTA's are patches meaning that they target specific files and partitions. No way to know definatively whether the next OTA will affect this file. Easiest way to know for sure is wait to see what others are reporting. Or get comfortable with opening up any zip files that you are contemplating installing on your phone to see and understand what files they are changing/replacing/patching.

Craig

 

[PbSandman7]

thanks for all of the info. I watched through that video link above to forever root but I'm confused on something... In the text editor when you are promted to type the files in the mount_ext3.sh file.. etc.. I'm supposed to scroll down to where it says.. Local.prop but mine does have that file..?
The last tings mine says is..


${Mount_Point}
fi


any idea what the deal is Or is that a different root file that he has? Based off of looking at his phone in the video, it is missing a couple lines of code... wth

 

[Bear in NM]

Pb,

I did not look at the video, and I have not used the forever root, per se. I manullay added the lines in my .sh file, at the end, per the original forever root discussions back when. Two blank lines after the last fi, then the commands. I would suggest running forever root (make a nandroid first), then open the file to see where the lines are inserted. If I were to do this, I would also make a backup copy of the .sh file before, just for comparison sake, and because I am kinda picky about one steps in general. And if you blow the syntax of the commands they will not work, and you would likely only find out the hard way ;^)

Craig

Edit: Just occured to me. As a new user a couple of points. When you manullay insert code, everything is very specific. Spaces, characters and upper/lower case. Also when you edit with root explorer, the program will automatically make a backup file for you. I mentioned nandroid, as it is critical that when you make changes you have a way back, just in case.

 

[ruck0loc0]

I also did the quick exploit and had the same questions regarding the missing lines of code. the missing lines say " busybox cp - fp /data/local ... etc " and there's another one under it that has the similiar code but ends with " local.prop " ..... are these the busybox and superuser apps that were supposed to be included when rooting? I am asking because i had to manually install superuser and busybox so are these lines of code necessary before typing in the forever root lines at the end?

 

[PbSandman7]

After thinking a little, I assume the root files will be a little different. considering this file was designed to root after the 893 update, I could only assume that's why it does have those last couple lines of code... I could be wrong though. Everything seems to work and didn't have any error messages as well.

I am definitely aware of the preciseness of inputing the forever root commands, its basically like the old DOS commands. I haven't done that is years but I greatly appreciate the heads up.
A lot of this stuff just needs to be refreshed in my memory but I am more than capable of tinkering with the programs, upgrading my rom.etc. I've just been out of this loop for a while.

Are you referring to making a copy of that specific .sh file so I can reuse it off of another copy if I someone screw it up by putting the commands in incorrectly?
How do I do that?
Do you suggest making a nandroid BEFORE I go the forever root path so I can have a back up and a clean copy of the .sh file? just trying to clarify so I'm on the same page.

 

[PbSandman7]

Anybody know what's up?

 

[Bear in NM]

PB,

Sorry about that. Being self employed today kinda got away from me.

As to the backing up, we are kinda in a tough spot with our locked bootloader and OTA's in that we have to be pretty careful about backups. Or more precisely being able to get back to a state where an OTA will take. So yes, a nandroid in your unaltered (stock) state is a good thing to have. And I too go back to the dos days so I am also particular about making copies of all my mods where I keep one on my sd card, and at least one on my PC. Nandroids as well. This particular sh file is not a critical bust the OTA kinda file, but it is a good habit to be in. Keep track of your mods so that you can undo what you do. One of the reasons I like manually doing things, I can usually undo if necessary without the need for someone to make an "undo" zip file.

As I mentioned, when you edit a file with Root Explorer, the program will automatically create a backup file with the same name with a .bak extension, so no worry about doing it manually necessarilly. But what I like to do is make a copy before my mod to the SD card, then I will pull it to my computer where I can look it over on a larger screen. I like to see what the files are doing. And I do keep a directory on my PC where I back up my SD card periodically, and keep a directory structure of my mods and files that I install.

As to modding files in place, it is a lot like dos. Some files are your operating files, and modding can be difficult and dangerous. This sh file is only run at boot, so you can mod the file, but any error would only show at boot. Where in lies the danger of the dreaded bootloop. Hence the reason for a nandroid and recovery. If you keep a copy of the file on your SD or PC you could conceivably push the file through the adb shell (from the PC) to a borked (bootlooping) phone. Just one more fail safe. Again this sh file is reasonably safe to mess with, as if you added borked lines of code likely nothing bad would happen. If the code were not correct, it would possibly mean losing root with an OTA, but you would not bork the boot. If you get into modding XML's and such, more care and/or habits gained from tweaking these type of file will give you ability and confidence. I only mentioned the syntax thing, as I don't know how many times I have created scripts where I stare at the bloody thing swearing it should be right, only to come back later to see the stupid upper/lower case issue.

Ruck, I forget how I got my busybox when I rooted, but it should be in /system/xbin with symbolic links to the commands in /system/bin. If you look in /system/bin you will see files that end with a "toolbox" label. These are symbolic linked command files to the busybox command/file in xbin. Typically bin is the location for native shell commands, and xbin is treated as the user area for shell stuff. Generally speaking. This stucture is set up much like a dos path type deal so that you do not have to have full size files in both places. Back in the old days, you could fill a system up pretty quickly with botched sym links. I do not have those additional lines of code, and I had no problem maintaining root through the last OTA. No help there, sorry. Perhaps this is a component of the forever root zip script? And Titanium Backup does have the ability to download and fix busybox stuff, it that ever arises.

And I have not seen this much with the limited roms that we have right now, but you do have to be at least mindful if you download Busybox from the market, and maintain updating it. Sometimes upgrading busybox or even SU can wreck Roms or apps. I always make a mental note if upgrading either of these that I need to watch for things turning south.

Craig